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Re:Pentagon surveilling Americans without a warrant, Senator... by rootusrootus on Thursday May 13, 2021 @04:59PM (#27147386)
> It is powerless if people ignore it.

Indeed we just had a bit of a lesson in the recent past which showed exactly how dependent our country is (and probably most other countries as well) on shared values and tradition. The Constitution isn't all-powerful as a piece of paper, its real power is as an idea.

Re:Pentagon surveilling Americans without a warrant, Senator... by Frost1x on Thursday May 13, 2021 @05:13PM (#27147548)
The real power is consensus in an idea. Hopefully that idea is good but ultimately, you need critical mass to accept an idea or reject it.

If people in the US really want to grab back power to the citizens of this country it can be done (peacefully even). All it really takes is a large enough consensus of voters to upend all the garbage we're being subjected to. The issue is that the consensus is more difficult to reach due to the scale of the US voter population combined with tactics like gerrymandering and overall difficulty of orchestrating movements to support ideals most people seem to support (which isn't oppressing a minority unless we classify power and wealth hungry individuals as a protected minority which we currently seem to do).

Reaching consensus amongst citizens is far far more difficult these days, giving an edge to those already sitting in positions of concentrated power with fewer players, lending itself more likely to reach a consensus. It doesn't help that those in power actively try and divide the general voter population and set us against one another making it even more difficult to reach a consensus.

Re:Pentagon surveilling Americans without a warrant, Senator... by concordDance on Friday May 14, 2021 @04:09AM (#27151931)
I think it's more a coordination problem than a consensus problem. Ditching first past the post for approval voting or somesuch would likely solve a lot of issues.